Beijing-parking-ITDP-China

percent — own a car. High density developmentand a preponderance of buildings that pre-dateoff-street parking mandates has helped keep thenumber of autos per person low.Due to its low residential population and highnumber of commuters, the city introduced manyof its parking reforms downtown. Following theopening of the Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority(BART) rail line in 1973, the city authorized aparking cap of all downtown commuter parkingspaces. Minimums do not apply to any usedowntown, and a maximum of one space ispermitted for every four downtown residentialunits. Similarly, parking may occupy no morethan 7 percent of an office building’s gross floorarea — about onespace for every 20office workers.San Francisco hasproceeded to eliminateresidential minimumparking requirementsthrough the adoptionof neighborhood plansfor districts close tothe downtown, from1997. In 2005 theRincon Hill Plan wasthe first to eliminateminimum parkingrequirements for alluses in a residentialneighborhood. Mostdevelopers now buildup to the maximumallowed number ofspaces. The city’sresidential parkingmaximums range from 0.5 to one space per unit,depending on neighborhood factors such asaccess to transit and density; these were often convertedfrom the existing minimum requirements.San Francisco’s Planning Department statesthat parking maximums have been achievablebecause they have been part of a larger packageof policy and infrastructure and other changesfor neighborhoods as prerequisite for development.Dedicated parking spaces for car sharingand covered bicycle parking are now common inlarger residential developments.5.3 Budapest, HungaryProblemBudapest rapidly motorized in the 1980s and1990s, and with motorization came heavy congestion,related air pollution and parking problems.When Hungary, of which Budapest is the capital,became a formal member of the European Unionin 2004, its cities had to comply to EU regulationsand standards, including air pollution standards.To prevent having to pay the EU hefty fines, theBudapest government decided to tackle its trafficproblems and shift its citizens to more sustainablemodes of transport.A warning sign for towing in case of illegal parking, tono effect. In the 1990s parked cars had invaded Budapest’sstreets, sidewalks and public spaces and congestionand pollution was rampant.Source: Gyarmati (2011), Sustainable traffic in Budapest),https://www.itdp.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/197.-ITDP_Summit_Zoltan_Gyarmati_ITDP_Europe_-_02_Parking_1.pdfStrategyManaging parking was identified as a crucial andfairly easily achievable element of reducing cartrips. The city government used a three-prongedstrategy to attack the parking problems. First,it worked to centralize control of the entireBeijing Parking, ITDP-China 1101 March 2015